CEN-391 Technical Communication

Local Material for Civil Infrastructure Projects

Adarsh (14113004)

Abstract: Thisreport deals with the contribution of local materials in civil infrastructure
projects. Advantages of natural materials over the industrial materials have been discussed
such as their contribution towards a sustainable environment, reduction in transportation costs
and several other things. Different natural building technologies involving the use of local
materials such as clay, timber, flyash, straw bale, stone, etc. have been discussed in this
report. These materials can be used effectively in construction such as clay, timber, straw
bales, etc. can be used to construct small structures, fly ash in embankments and road
construction and several other uses.
Keywords:Adobe, Cob, Cordwood, Earthbag, Wattle and Daub

Introduction can be used effectively such as clay and

Civil Engineering is considered to be the
initial footsteps of mankind into the world
of engineering. It keeps us overwhelmed
by its astonishing outcomes. The
development in the fields of structural,
hydraulics, transportation, environmental
and survey engineering has helped the
people to have a safe place to live in, to
travel with ease and get a sustainable
environment.
All these things involved, the civil
infrastructure projects incur huge costs and
extensive use of materials such as cement,
steel, composite material for road
pavements, etc. The major problem related
to these is that they involve huge costs in
the project related to their production and
transportation. Of course there is not a
very great alternative to this, so it has to be
fulfilled. But lately, considering the
resources available and economically
viable projects, natural or local materials
sand, harvested wood, fly ash, etc.
Natural buildings mainly strive towards
increasing environmental sustainability
that include range of building systems and
materials. Its basis is to lessen the
environmental impacts of buildings and
other supporting systems
withoutcompromising life and health.
These natural buildings use abundantly
available, recycled or reused materials.
Also they rely on non-industrial,
minimally processed and locally available
materials.
Features
Natural or local materials have less energy
embodied and less toxic than man-made
materials. They require less processing and
have very less impact on the environment.
Also the products become more
sustainable when they are incorporated
into building materials.
Construction waste can also be reduced if
use of natural materials is emphasised. For

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example, if we consider concrete, we can
see how much of it goes waste regarding
its handling, the time in which it should be
used, etc. and several other factors. This
results in a considerable amount of waste
which needs to be dealt with properly and
also there is wastage of money. On the
other hand, less waste generation will be
there in case of local materials because
only that amount will be used that is
required. Also some of the natural
materials that are considered as waste such
as harvested wood in forests, fly ash, etc.
can be used in construction projects
thereby reducing the waste.
Also the transportation cost can be reduced
in case of local materials as it can be
readily available as compared to the man-
made or industrially produced materials.
Materials
Some of the materials that can be used for
natural building are clay, wood, straw
(straw can be loosely defined to include
any dried non-woody plant material such
as palm fronds, reeds, etc.), fly-ash, rice-
hulls, slag, wool,bamboo and stone.
Variety of non-toxic recycled or reused
materials are very common in natural
buildings such as urbanite (salvaged
chunks of used concrete), vehicle
windscreens and other recycled glass.
Clay is abundantly available for many
natural building techniques. Straw bales
can be available seasonally from the farms.
Bamboo can be a very effective material in
constructing sustainable structures. Also
fly-ash is being used nowadays in
construction of roads and in embankments.
It is not always possible to use locally
available materials but if used, should be
done selectively and in a small volume.
Natural Building Techniques &
Technologies
As we have already seen how locally
available materials can be advantageous in
the civil infrastructure projects, let us
discuss the technologies in which they can
be used:
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Adobe
It is one of the oldest building methods.
Adobe is simply a mixture of clay and
sand with water. For strengthening it,
chopped straw or other fibres are added
sometimes. The mixture is then dried in
the desired shape. Usually it is used to
form bricks that be stacked to form
walls.Also, adobe can be plastered over
with lime-based mixes for protection and
appearance. It is not a good insulator
hence insulators can be used preferably on
the outside. However, thick traditional un-
insulated adobe has proved to very
effective in regions where weather
conditions are not very harsh.
Fig 1. House constructed of bricks formed by adobe
Cob
The term cob is used to describe a
monolithic building system based on a
mixture of clay, sand, straw and earth. The
construction uses no forms, bricks or
wooden framework; it is built from the
ground up. Cob is one of the simplest and
least expensive building techniques
available, though it is typically very
labour-intensive. It can easily be shaped
into any form owing to its versatility. Cob
is generally associated with low-rise
structures. Cob-like mixes are also used as
plaster or filler in several methods of
natural building, such as adobe, earth bags,
timber frames, and straw bales. Earth is
thus a primary ingredient of natural
building.
 footings, foundations, walls and even
domed roofs. Recently, this method has
been gaining popularity as it facilitates
self-contained, often free-form rammed-
earth structures.
Since earth is a poor insulator, substitutes
like pumice, rice-hulls, etc. are being
utilised for their use in harsh weather
conditions.

Fig 2. A small Cob building

Cordwood
Cordwood construction is a term used for a
natural building method in which short
lengths of pieces of debarked tree are laid
up crosswise with masonry or cob
mixtures to build a wall. Cordwood
masonry can be combined with other
Fig 4. An Earthbag structure
methods (e.g., rammed earth, cob or light
clay) to produce attractive combinations.
Cordwood masonry construction provides
a relatively high thermal mass, which Rammed Earth
helps to minimise fluctuations in Rammed earth is a wall system made of
temperature. compacted earth, or another material that
is compacted. It is extremely strong and
durable. Quality rammed earth walls are
dense, solid, and stone-like with great
environmental benefits and superior low
maintenance characteristics.Rammed earth
walls are formed in place by pounding
damp sub-soil (containing sand, clay and
sometimes gravel) into movable, reusable
forms with manual or machine-powered
tampers.

Fig 3. A section of a Cordwood home

Earthbag
Earth is the most typical fill material used
in bag-wall construction techniques.This
building method uses stacked
polypropylene or natural-fiber bags filled
with earth or other mixes without a Fig 5. Multi-coloured rammed earth wall
stabilizer such as portland cement, to form

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Stone
Stone has been used as a building material
for thousands of years and is recognized as
a material of great durability. They form
freestanding structures such as field walls,
bridges and buildings that use irregularly
shaped stones carefully selected and
placed so that they fit closely together
without slipping. Stone is a highly durable,
low maintenance building material with
high thermal mass. It is versatile, available Fig 7. A straw bale structure
in many shapes, sizes, colours and
textures, and can be used for floors, walls,
arches and roofs. Timber frame
The basic elements of this technique are
joint timbers, clay walls and thatch roofs.
These structures are mostly common in the
European countries. Timber frame
structures are frequently used in
combination with other natural building
techniques, such as cob, straw bale, or
cordwood/masonry.

Fig 6. A Stone structure

Fig 8. A timber frame structure

Straw bale
Grasses and straw have been in use in a
range of ways in building since pre-history Wattle and Daub
around the world. Straw bale building
Wattles are made from flexible wood or
typically consists of stacking a series of
fibres and are woven loosely to create an
rows of bales (often in running-bond) on a
underlying structure for a wall. Plaster is
raised footing or foundation, with a
then daubed onto the wattle to finish the
moisture barrier between.Bale walls are
wall and provide thermal mass. Straw
often tied together with pins of bamboo or
wattle is a better-insulated variation where
wood, or with surface wire meshes, and
clay-embedded long straw fibres are
then plastered with either lime-based
woven around light-weight uprights and
formulations or earth/clay renders. Basic
then plastered.
bale-building method is now increasingly
being extended to bound modules of other Wool Bricks
often-recycled materials, including tire-
bales, as well as those of cardboard, paper, These bricks are exactly what the name
plastics and used carpeting, and to bag- suggests. By addition of wool and some
contained "bales" of wood-chips, rice- natural polymer, their strengths are
hulls, etc. increased by about 37% as compared to
the other bricks. They also dry hard,
reducing the embodied energy as they
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don’t need to be fired like traditional References
bricks.
Kim J., Graves J., “Sustainable Architecture Module:
Qualities, Use, and Examples of Sustainable Building
Materials.” (1998). Sustainable Architecture Module:
Qualities, Use, and Examples of Sustainable Building
Materials, National Pollution Prevention Center for
Higher Education, 430 E. University Ave., Ann Arbor,
<http://www.umich.edu/~nppcpub/resources/compend
ia/archpdfs/archsbmintro.pdf> (Oct. 16, 2016).

“Natural building.” (n.d.). Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation,

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/natural_building> (Oct. 16,
2016).

By lining the trench with 2. (2010). “Natural Building Materials,

Techniques & Technologies at Dancing Rabbit.” Dancing
Fig 9. Wool Bricks Rabbit Ecovillage, <http://www.dancingrabbit.org/about-
dancing-rabbit-ecovillage/eco-living/building/natural-
building/> (Oct. 16, 2016).

Uses of Flyash “Five Sustainable Building Materials that Could Transform

Construction.” (2010). This Big City Comments, Joe Peach,
Flyash can be used in the cement mixture <http://thisbigcity.net/five-sustainable-building-materials-
as a substitute to Portland cement and that-could-transform-construction/> (Oct. 16, 2016).
sand, in the embankments or structural
fills, waste stabilisation and solidification,
as a subbase material for roads and in the
bricks as a substitute material.
Conclusion
From the content above we have seen
various kinds of construction technologies
being used involving the use of naturally
or locally occurring materials. They can be
used in small quantities in large scale
projects which can result in a considerable
reduction in the cost of the project. Also
they can be a great alternative to the
industrial materials in small projects. The
way in which they prove to be sustainable
to the environment, it can be a better
choice to use these materials in the civil
infrastructure projects.